Putin's Saber-Rattling

Britain's The Guardian wrote that "the current fad of tearing up vital arms-control agreements was started by America when it abrogated the anti-ballistic missile treaty in order to build its missile shield. Russia followed suit on Saturday by announcing that it would suspend its obligations under the conventional forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. If the trend continues, the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty could be next. And then Europe, freshly liberated from the cold-war threat of instant extinction, will be bristling with missiles."

In Spain, conservative daily ABC commented that Russia's decision to suspend the CFE treaty was bad news, but not necessarily because it meant that this could revive old military threats. "The move shows that Moscow's political leaders, starting with Putin himself, still think in terms of the long-gone categories of the Cold War."

Vienna's liberal paper Der Standard meanwhile said that the Russians were acting out of principle to avoid any meddling in their sphere of influence and a strategic disadvantage. "The planned US missile defense system is part of that. The Bush administration has talked Poland and the Czech Republic into it and duped the other NATO states that wanted to slow things down and negotiate with Russia rather than have Washington make all the decisions alone. Putin has given the West 150 days to fulfill his demands regarding a reform of the CFE treaty. Europe can thank Bush for that."

Poland's conservative Rzeczpospolita wrote that Putin acted as he had promised. "It's important to keep a cool head now," the daily commented, adding that the announcement came as Polish President Lech Kaczynski was on his way to the US to discuss the missile defense system with George W. Bush. "It also happened at a point, when Russia is conducting military exercises on a large scale...Putin's saber-rattling also affects Europe. In all conversations with EU politicians, one has to say: See for yourself what the Kremlin is doing and draw your own conclusions."

The Handelsblatt newspaper from Düsseldorf in Germany on the other hand commented that Putin had a solid argument on his side. "A majority of NATO states didn't ratify the 1999 version of this arms control agreement. But the Russian president still has to tolerate questions regarding the motivation behind his act of defiance. Does he want to build new tanks, new fighter planes? If so, what does he want to do with them? Is he dreaming of a renaissance of the gloried Soviet empire? Putin should know where his real interests lie: in a pacific Europe that offers a giant market for Russia's rich energy treasures."